We want to announce an important step forward that will undoubtedly improve the journal's quality, visibility and positioning. RUSC's Editorial Board has approved the incorporation of Australia's University of New England as a co-editor and co-publisher of the journal alongside the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia (UOC). The UNE is a benchmark university for Australia, New Zealand and Oceania and, under the Faculty of the Professions, coordinates the Distance Education Hub (DEHub), an important research and analysis centre for e-learning and open and distance education, which has a collaboration agreement with the UOC's eLearn Center.

This alliance makes RUSC a truly global journal in the field of research into e-learning. It will now benefit from the vision and drive of two benchmark universities in the academic sector: the UOC and the UNE. For our authors, this alliance will greatly improve the visibility of their articles, as both universities together cover wide geographical areas of influence in the journal's two languages: English and Spanish. This agreement also means that an academic researcher from the UNE and a number of researchers from Australia, New Zealand and Oceania will join the Editorial Board. It also allows for co-editing and co-publication of the journal. From January onwards, Dr Rosalind James, Director of the UNE's DEHub, and I will co-direct RUSC. Dr James's experience and knowledge of the world of e-learning will help RUSC take on new challenges and objectives. It is an honour for me and for all of the RUSC team to be able to count on her support in this new phase.

The next issue of RUSC in January 2013 will be the first co-edited and co-published by the UOC and the UNE. The editorial will provide more details on the alliance, its scope and the potential for the future.